Rochdale housing organisation brightens up housing stock with Dulux Trade Weathershield
North West housing ALMO, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), which manages the 14,000 council homes across Rochdale has secured significant funding to carry out external refurbishment work on College Bank flats in the centre of town. College Bank is a group of 16 to 21 storey apartment blocks known affectionately among locals as 'The Seven Sisters.' As the development dominates the Rochdale skyline, using a quality product that would keep the buildings looking smart for many years to come was paramount, and RBH turned to Dulux Trade for coatings advice and specification support.
Dulux Trade Specifier Account Manager, Drew Trobe, worked closely with RBH to develop a specification that would transform the building's most recognisable feature, the rendered panels that sit between the windows on each floor, to breathe new life into the College Bank flats. Drew recommended using high performance paints from the Dulux Trade Weathershield range, as they are proven to deliver exterior durability and protection in even the harshest and most demanding of environments.
The panels were first treated with a clear coat of Dulux Trade Weathershield Stabilising Primer to seal any areas that remained powdery and chalky following surface preparation. Two coats of Weathershield Maximum Exposure Smooth Masonry Paint were then applied to cover hairline cracks and prevent subsequent cracking and flaking.
Drew explains: "The unique properties of Weathershield Maximum Exposure Smooth Masonry Paint provide a tough paint film that is five times more flexible than conventional masonry paints, giving up to fifteen years protection. It also contains fungicide to prevent mould growth in damp conditions. An added bonus is that Maximum Exposure is shower resistant just fifteen minutes after application, ideal for jobs taking place in the famously changeable weather conditions of the North West of England!"
The existing render on the first block of flats at College Bank had deteriorated and needed to be re-rendered, and the top-storey concrete columns were then coated in a heavy-duty high build material. Although Dulux Trade Weathershield Maximum Exposure Smooth Masonry Paint is suitable for application to surfaces previously painted with masonry paint or other solvent based finishes, the new render and the high build material required blending in, so Dulux Trade mixed a bespoke colour for Rochdale Boroughwide Housing to give a seamless result.
Steve Hughes, Senior Surveying Technician at RBH concludes: "Using Dulux Trade Weathershield Maximum Exposure Smooth Masonry Paint on The Seven Sisters will enable us to significantly extend our maintenance cycles at the site, as the buildings will stay looking smart and inviting for years. Aside from the financial benefits this gives us, it will also help to give our tenants more pride in their community and we hope their quality of life will subsequently be improved."
